Quail Lakes & Coal: Energy for Wildlife ... And The World

There’s no way to guess Quail Lakes was a surface mine. Aside from two deep lakes, there’s no evidence that massive earthmoving machines once rumbled across these rolling 1,200 acres of Illinois farmland, lakes, wetlands, and native prairie plants. But the same Quail Lakes that today is home to endangered bird species and hundreds of other wild creatures was a coal mine — a surface mine with pits as deep as 75 feet. Despite what you have heard about about surface mining, Quail Lakes points ...